What everyone can agree on, though, is that Marin is arewarding place to bird, and that we’re home to several hun-dred hard-core birders. “If you look at the states with thelargest lists of birds, Texas is the winner, with California hoton its heels,” says Gordon. “But California, by virtue of beinga big and populous state, has for decades been a center of bird-ing culture, particularly in Marin.”The reason? Birds like Marin. We have a wide varietyof terrain that attracts thousands of birds. According toMelissa Pitkin, education and outreach director at Point BlueConservation Science, 470 species have been recorded at thePoint Reyes National Seashore alone. Because the Point Reyespeninsula juts out along the Pacific Fly way — the migratory pathbetween Alaska and South America — it’s a popular place formigrating birds to stop and rest along the way. Richardson Bay,with its abundant Pacific herring run (and Audubon sanctuary),is also a popular spot for wintering birds, such as the westerngrebe and long-billed curlew. Our ample open space offers every-thing from grasslands and forests to lagoons and beaches. Byavian standards, the real estate options here are sweet.

It’s little surprise, then, that Marin has been, or is, home
to some of the world’s most renowned birders. Rich Stallcup,
who cofounded the Point Reyes Bird Observatory (now Point
Blue) in 1965 and died in 2012, was something of a legend
among birders. The West Marin resident recorded a huge
number of first sightings and played a pivotal role in the rise
of birding as a national pastime. Another West Marin resident, Keith Hansen, is one of the top bird illustrators in the
country and a seasoned local Audubon field trip guide. Other
birders mention these t wo with a bit of awe.

Which gets to the second most common activity among
birders, after lifting their binoculars: sandbagging. There is
a kind of reverse pecking order among birders, with everyone claiming to be not nearly as knowledgeable as the birder
standing next to them. Len Blumin, a retired emergency room
physician, has been birding for about 30 years, is a bird photographer and has read more than 100 books on the subject.
But, he says, “Rich Stallcup’s knowledge was easily 10 times
greater — and I’m not exaggerating; maybe it was 50-fold
greater — than mine or Susan’s. We’re still learning.”